The rationale and toxicity of combined cranial radiotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer.

The rationale and toxicity of combined cranial radiotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer. Asia Pac J Clin Oncol. 2020 Mar 04;: Authors: Chen Y, Zhuang H, Wang J Abstract Cranial radiation therapy (CRT) remains to be the foundation stone of the management of brain metastases in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Nevertheless, the care of NSCLC, recently, has been remarkably reshaped by the immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), such as programmed death protein-1 and programmed death ligand-1 inhibitors, which even showed some efficacy in brain metastases. Furthermore, radiotherapy, traditionally regarded as a therapy via localized cytotoxicity, recently was reported to trigger a systemic immune response, thus probably enhancing the antitumor effect of ICIs. Preliminary datasets confirmed that the combination of these two therapies seemed superior to either monotherapy in NSCLC patients with brain metastases with improved efficacy and comparable toxicity. In this review, we started with discussing the rationale for the combination of CRT and ICIs, then outlined the clinical evidence supporting the high safety of this combined therapy, and finally made a preliminary conclusion on the safety of the combination of CRT and ICIs. PMID: 32129944 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Clinical Lung Cancer - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Asia Pac J Clin Oncol Source Type: research